Now our daughter is 2 years old airlines are telling us that she must sit in her own seat for landing and take-off, despite the fact she cannot sit unsupported and is still the size of a 1 year old. The airlines we have contacted have told us to speak to the car seat manufacturers, and the car seat manufacturers have told us to speak to the airlines. Britax seem the only manufacturer to have seats that can take lap belts, but all these seats are wider than the 42cm specified by EasyJet. Help!

If anyone has taken a forward facing car seat on a plane within Europe can they let me know what make/model and which airline. We flew 6 times very happily until she was 2 - now we are at our wits end trying to visit family in Iceland & Portugal! We can't be the only family in this situation? :(

We had this problem with Easyjet a while back when we wanted to sit our two-year old on our lap and we were told he wouldn't be insured. I had months of email correspondence with Easyjets customer services to try and sort something out, as we also encountered the problem on a couple of occassions, where the ground staff refused to deliver his supportive buggy at the gate.

We have since acquired a Burnett Vacuum System from social services, which we have used as a buggy insert and a seat. It's a bean bag you can suck the air out of and it molds itself to the shape of the child. It's very useful as a support on a plane seat and Virgin use it. At first Easyjet refused to let us use it and I was so frustrated that I rang Whiz Kidz, their main charity, and told them about our situation. I was finally put in touch with someone at Easyjet who could help. If you want, you can submit an email address so I can forward you his email and you can explain your situation and see what he suggests.

Hi
We managed to use the car sear when our son was 2 but it was almost a disaster because despite having permission to use it in writing when we got to the airport the ground crew would not agree to us using it.Eventually after we were subjected to cross examination by the flight captain we were permitted to board.Not a good start to a holiday.
My son is now 7 ,can not sit unsupported and we are flying to Lanzarota for Easter.We have hired a special seat that is approved by the CAA for use in airlines.It is called the Travel chair and is made by Daws Engineering,they do have a web site ?dawseng.co.uk.

That looks like a great chair! I wonder why you can only hire and it's not been made commercially available.

Here's my email address for the EasyJet contact - chris-leesa@oceanfree.net. Thanks

I think that it may be possible to buy it as some airlines provide them free of charge but I suspect that it is very expensive.I will report back when we have tried it.

It does seem a bit of profiteering to hire it out at £100 a trip. We had been taking a couple of overseas trips a year! Anyway, I think my daughter will be too small as the website says it is suitable from 3 years up. She's only two, and is the size of most 1 year olds. So we're still looking at the car seat option unfortunately.

We used sitty-legs when we took our son on a plane. We borrowed them from school where they use them on a tracker electric chair. They are a plastic trunk and thigh support so the child is held in a supported sitting position and can then be strapped in using the airplane lapstrap. They are very light and easy to carry. I assume an OT or orthotics department would know about them.

We've also used them on a coach and at granma's house.

Hi
I thought the cost was very reasonable,there isn't a big market demand for such a seat and I suspect the cost of testing a seat to the CAA regulations is enormous.I expect the company actually makes a loss on the seat hire.
Sorry it won't help you now but hopefully it will be useful in the future.

Hi

We have used a Britax Club Class Extra on both BMI Baby(flights to N Ireland from East Midlands) and Easyjet (flights to Venice) planes with our son who is unable to sit unsupported. The last time we flew with either airline he was two and a half. Despite informing the airlines at check in of our special needs the cabin crew have never been informed so we just get on with it as best we can and ideally we like board as late as possible to avoid sitting in a cabin any longer than necessary.

The last time we were planning to fly to Ireland with Jet2 I discovered that their seats are not deep enough to take our car seat so we decided to drive in the end.

Good luck with your trip.